


last moments

by Bi_Bi_Bi_Writer



Category: AtLA - Fandom, Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, I love the gaang, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Stabbing Mention, The Gaang - Freeform, angst no comfort, angst slight comfort, blood mention, help im so emo, i keep writing about sokka dying, i love my boy sokka, sokka being the gaang's (except zuko's) older brother is a hill i'll die on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25503658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bi_Bi_Bi_Writer/pseuds/Bi_Bi_Bi_Writer
Summary: in which sokka's been stabbed and everyone's racing to save him- or even just see him before he dies.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Zuko, Sokka & Aang, Sokka & Toph, Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko, Toph & Katara, Zuko & Toph, Zuko/Sokka, katara/aang (implied), suki & sokka
Comments: 17
Kudos: 114





	last moments

**Author's Note:**

> tw// mentions of sokka being stabbed and blood

toph was the first person to arrive.

she was the one to take sokka to his unknowing sister- much like she had been the first one to have gotten along well with sokka. she’d always teased him so much, that was their friendship though! she’d call him names and tease him and he’d make jokes about her and get her to use her earthbending to gain them some money. they had their softer side, sure, like when sokka and her had talk about sugar queen- about katara- or when they would be going down a road toph had never been in and sokka would just ramble about how everything looked.

toph dared a glance at sokka’s paling face as she remembered the day she brought it up.

“ _why do you always feel the need to describe every place i haven’t been to?_ ” she had asked, with as much tact as ever. sokka had turned to look at her just as toph began speaking again “it’s not like i don’t know where everything is, i mean i have my feet.” to prove her point, toph lifted one foot and wiggled her toes. sokka rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he chuckled. “i didn’t think it was that obvious.” he mumbled as toph snorted. “as oblivious as ever snoozles.”

she sat besides him. “hey i resent that!”

after a few moments of silence, sokka sighed and spoke up again “i just wanted to make sure you knew everything in case mr. firelord over there-” he gestured behind him, towards the rest of the fire nation’s castle. “burned you again.” although he was making a ( weak ) attempt at a joke, toph could still hear his solemn tone so she didn’t react. it was another few seconds of silence before he continued “i just didn’t want you to be limited to relying on any of us ever again...when i- when we were almost captured by the fire soldiers back in the airship i thought- well it doesn’t matter what i thought,” sokka took out his ponytail, running his hand through his hair as he exhaled a weak attempt at a chuckle. “what’s important is that we’re all ok and i shouldn’t underestimate you.”

toph picked a flower from the grass infront of her and fingered it softly. “what does this flower look like?” she asked mindlessly.

sokka made a soft noise as he took said flower from her. with an even lighter touch, he grabbed her hand and led her pointer finger to a petal. “well this soft part is a petal. it’s the outer layers protecting the center bit. on this flower it’s a light blue- _err_ ” sokka cut himself off, thinking of a way to describe blue to a blind girl for a moment before continuing. “it’s the color of the sky during noon and a little after, it’s the colors of katara’s dress from back home. it’s the color of the smaller lakes and the color of your socks.”

“oh...is it pretty?” sokka pondered over it for a few seconds before saying that yes it looked very pretty, before leading her finger to the aforementioned ‘center part’. “this is the center part, it’s where the lionbees go to get pollen and make honey. it’s the color of the sun and the middle of a fire, the color of zuko’s eyes.” toph nodded along as sokka kept describing every part, and she let him keep going until he had described every color imaginable...it was really helpful, to say the least.

“thanks, sokka.” she said, smiling idly as she kept playing with the grass. “and you’re right. we are ok and you should know better than to underestimate me. i don’t need any one of you, i just like hanging out with you.”

at the time toph had thought it was enough, but now, as his body was taken from her to the healers and katara, toph couldn’t help but regret everything she’d said and everything she hadn’t said. toph pushed past as many people as she could so she could be in the same room as him and katara atleast. he was going to get better- he _had_ to get better. she needed him to get better.

\------------------------------------

zuko hadn’t gone to the south pole in _years_.

he had been busy with firelord business ( you know how it is, rebuilding a whole country from scratch after a war and all ) and sokka and the rest had visited frequently enough so it was fine. sokka more often and for more time than the others- but that was just a perk from dating the loudmouthed water tribe man.

the last time he’d visited was also for sokka, but they’d gone together. it was one of the best trips of his life. he remembers he used to hate the southern water tribe- the northern tribe was at least more or less a city. the southern water tribe was just some random houses built in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with the coldest environment he’d ever experienced. yet he still had willingly gone with sokka like a lost puppy.

he had hated the place when he first arrived, not being able to stop shivering even if he was under enough layers that he couldn’t move most of his joints fully. it wasn’t until one day, where they were in a small little shop, browsing the different types of coats ( sokka insisted he was cold but they both knew he was just going to wrap it against his boyfriend with a kiss ) that he found himself not hating it so much. he was following sokka to the register- after an hour of sokka looking at all the different designs and sizes he had managed to convince him to choose so they could go back home and cuddle- when sokka spotted seal jerky in a little street vendor right outside.

it was like a light had gone off- he’d immediately dropped the coat he was holding ( much to zuko’s chagrin ) and bolted outside, dragging zuko by their held hands. he had followed as best as he could but he didn’t manage to fully regain his balance until sokka had stopped, already pulling out his money. zuko had half a mind to offer to pay but for now they were trying to keep a low profile and revealing fire nation currency wouldn’t _really_ help so he was reduced to letting sokka pay.

when his boyfriend was done buying the seal jerky, sokka immediately turned to zuko, eyes shining, and offered him the first piece. it was something simple, something that could be written off as simple manners but for some reason zuko found himself feeling touched. he felt his insides burning hotter than they ever had back at the fire nation as he gingerly took the piece. he brought it to his lips as they began walking away, but hesitated. he dropped his hand instead of eating the food and looked at sokka as they kept walking.

sokka had all of his attention concentrated on the food as he barely gave himself enough time to finish one piece of jerky before stuffing another one in his mouth. zuko hated himself for finding it cute and endearing instead of gross and improper.

“ _i love you._ ” the words hadn’t meant to slip out of his mind and clearly sokka didn’t expect it either as he started choking on his jerky.

the second he was alright again zuko aggressively rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, purple spots dancing in his vision as his face burned a bright red. it's not like he didn’t mean it but he hadn’t been planning for such a romantic and special thing to happen in such a common and basic scenario. in his plans, he’d have bought sokka something like a bouquet of food and flowers but now he had no choice.

after a few seconds of choked laughter, sokka placed a gentle hand on zuko’s wrist and pried his hand from his good eye, forcing him to look at him. he had a cheesy smile decorated with saliva and bits of seal jerky. his cheeks were also glowing red but his eyes were warm with love as he grabbed zuko’s shoulder with his left hand, slowly pulling him closer. “i love you too, jerkbender.” he’d said before pulling zuko in for a ( frankly kind of groos ) kiss.

zuko shook the memory away as he rubbed his eyes, forcing the forming tears to retreat. he wasn’t 21 anymore and neither was sokka- and that didn’t matter because they’d had all these amazing years together and they’d have many, many more. they had to still have decades left in front of them. they _had_ to.

\--------------------

katara was doing her best- she had been working on sokka all throughout the afternoon, toph standing behind her.

they were both unreachable, she had a circle of water surrounding herself and sokka as she pulled from it every so often to try and get ‘pure’ water to see if it could help him. he’d been stabbed in the side, and instead of just pulling out their sword, the owner had moved it to the side so it was diagonal before pulling it out. it was something that no one had ever survived before- but katara still stayed cleaning the blood, doing her best to heal him, even hours after he arrived.

the water had changed colors with each passing hour, the sunlight affecting it, but she barely noticed. all that rang through her head was her brother's words- words that were definitely not gonna be his last. words that she wouldn’t allow to be his last- no matter what.

“hey, ‘tara,” sokka said hazily, a droopy smile on his lip as his eyes stayed closed. it was about two hours after the last time he’d woken up, and he was clearly much paler and weaker. it was probably a good sign, for him to wake up after losing so much blood, but katara couldn’t celebrate any victory until it was complete- she couldn’t afford to let her guard down. “katy-”

“ _don’t_ call me that.” sokka chuckled softly, which turned into a coughing fit.

katara’s eyes flickered between the wound to her brother’s face trying not to get distracted but also wanting to never forget this moment. maybe use it later to reprimand sokka about being so reckless or something. anything.

as he wiped his mouth, katara saw the small line of smudged blood on his lips and she let her eyes widen. _tui and la_ \- the sword hadn’t hit any major organs for which katara had been extremely grateful for- until now. keeping a hand hovering over the stab wound, a blob of water being a constant pressure all around it to avoid any more bleeding, katara reached behind sokka’s head, lifting it lightly as she inspected him. his face was pinched in pain as he whimpered softly ( he would’ve been howling if they hadn’t used sedatives and if he was more awake ) but katara was mainly zoned in on the red on his lips.

“‘m not bleeding.” said sokka, somehow already knowing what she was doing, even through closed eyes. “‘s just some blood from my hand.” katara had sighed in relief, unaware that sokka somehow became a good liar when sedated, as her older brother coughed once more, before resting his head back. “katara i-”

“don’t speak. focus on breathing and-” katara took in a shaky breath. there was a difference in just healing someone and healing _sokka_. katara continued working for a total of five minutes before she felt sokka’s hand weigh down on her lap. she continued working, ignoring it, until sokka spoke up. “i love you ‘tara. i don’t tell you it enough but-” he groaned “i, i really do. you’re like my favorite person.” a beat, and then “don’t tell zuko i said that. or toph, god she’ll like spit on my gra-”

“ _sokka_ ,” her voice was watery, barely above a whisper. but it hit sokka like a ton of bricks as he looked at his sister.

“sokka don’t say that. you’re- you’re going to live through this. i swear on mom’s necklace.”

sokka smiled warmly at his sister, or her general form ( pain and tears weren’t a good combination if you want to see clearly ), before continuing “katara. it’ll be ok, i’m badass and all but-” sokka hissed “you aren’t tui, la or anything like that so don’t hold yourself to impossible standards for me.” katara glared at the wound, rubbing her eyes with one hand before continuing in silence.

she wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact that sokka himself had given up. it was- it was _insulting_ and _offensive_ and pessimistic and _heartbreaking_ because he was her older brother and she needed him when the maps got too complicated or for when tenzin moved out or when she’s just feeling down and wants to hug her older brother. she can’t lose someone else.

“ _snoozles_?” right, toph was here.

katara couldn’t bring herself to feel guilty about not mentioning either person to the other. as they talked, katara just focused on calming herself down, focusing on stopping the bleeding again because the stupid meathead kept shifting despite his clear pain and causing more damage.

” _stop moving._ ”

sokka looked at katara from where his head was in her lap and instead of apologizing he just closed his eyes.

he felt _tired_. he didn’t know how much more he could keep it up- he loved katara and he wanted to see zuko one last time but the constant sound of the water lulled him into a vulnerable state and losing so much blood wasn’t exactly a recipe for a boost of energy.

toph, _bless her_ , noticed sokka’s heartbeat had slown down _just_ a little bit- enough for her to realize what was going to happen in a bit but not enough for it to happen immediately.

she placed a firm hand over one of katara’s, stopping her moves. she kept her face down, a tremble in her voice as she just said “ _it’s time to stop_.”

toph knew katara was glaring at her even if she couldn’t see it. “ _look_ , toph, just because you- both of you are so willing to give up on-” katara swallowed harshly and when she spoke up again, her voice shook “on _sokka_ doesn’t mean i will. you are being _weak_ and-”

“ **katara**.” katara shut up immediately at sokka’s harsh tone, it was one she’d heard before but never against his own sister.

“it’s _ok_. you’ll be ok. you’ve made it so far-” sokka coughed and toph just wordlessly ran her fingers through his hair until he was calm again. “you’re a strong woman, ‘tara. i’ve never known you to need anyone- much less a man- to keep going. i’ll be looking after you. both of us will be looking over all of you.” an ugly sound left katara as she leaned down into her older brother’s chest, balling her hands into fists on his chest. she couldn’t hug him because she knew it’d hurt him but she needed to have her older brother there. _know_ that he was there.

her cheek was pressed over where his heart was, she could barely hear the soft thumping. it was slightly inconsistent.

“sokka, _please_.” she begged, her voice trembling because she knew there was nothing her older brother could do for her. he placed a hand on her back weakly, moving his fingers ever so slightly as a final attempt to comfort her. “everytime lin, tenzin, kya or bumi do anything cool remember me. i was definitely the cool influencer out of all of us.” toph was the one to choke out a laugh, even as her tears landed on his cheek.

“i’m sorry toph, katara.” he didn’t know what he was apologizing for- for not being strong enough to fend of those equalists? for not being strong enough to survive a _light_ stabbing? for not holding out for zuko? he couldn’t decide. maybe none. maybe all of it- but what he _did_ know was that his baby sisters were crying and it was all _his_ fault.

there was _nothing_ he could do for the two women he cared about most in the world. “i love you toph. i love you katara- i’ll see you again in like sixty years, knowing you two.”

it was a few more minutes before sokka’s hand went limp, falling off of katara’s back and onto the floor. toph could barely hear the sound through katara’s scream of anguish. she could distantly tell some people enter- probably katara’s or sokka’s friends- but she ignored them in favor of laying on katara’s back, an arm firmly wrapped around her as she cried silently into her jacket.

toph felt like she was twelve again, hanging in the middle of nothingness with only sokka’s hand in hers to ground her, to let her know that she was still alive. but instead it was _sokka_ who disappeared, who made her feel like she was just floating in the middle of nothingness, with only a broken sister under her. she clenched her eyes shut as she pulled the older woman into her embrace, lifting her away from her dead brother and into her chest. and suddenly, katara was nine again- hugging her older brother as they pulled her mother’s burnt body away. he had placed his hand over her eyes, forcing her into his chest so as to not see their mom’s corpse just as toph was doing for her and sokka. katara tried to think about who he was being reunited with- she pictured him hugging their mom, him pulling aang into one of their ‘bro hugs’, suki probably would punch him for how he’d dealt with her death then congratulate him for becoming such a strong man. hopefully yue was there too- her brother _definitely_ didn’t like her anymore but it was comforting to think she had been watching over him and would finally be able to tell him that.

she fell asleep dreaming of her brother happy, reunited with so many old friends.

_a_ _t least he won’t be alone_ , she’d thought.

\------------------------

it was way past sunset when zuko finally arrived at the southern water tribe, pushing past guards with nothing but a fiery glare.

_finally_ , after just barely five minutes, zuko found himself outside the ‘infirmary’ ( the water tribe was still fairly small so they didn’t really have any big facilities ).

he hesitated for only a second before pushing the door open lightly- he didn’t know anything, he didn’t stop to be informed, he’d come straight to see his _not-exactly-husband-but-more-than-boyfriend_. zuko took a moment to adjust to the lack of lighting, but when he _could_ see properly he wished he wasn’t able to- the first thing he saw was the lump that was katara and toph- both presumably asleep- where katara was in toph’s lap, and toph was leaning against a pile of solid earth that toph had surely pulled out from the ground.

the next thing he saw was a body, lying by their feet with a pool of a _liquid_ surrounding it.

_no_.

 ** _no_** \- it wasn’t possible it- it wasn’t _fair_. it was cruel and heart wrenching and unfair and, and- _agni_ \- zuko bolted to sokka, dropping harshly on his knees.

his cape landed in a weird half circle around himself and sokka’s head. with trembling hands he lifted sokka’s head, which felt heavy and cold. he ran his other hand down sokka’s face, rested his knuckles on his scarred cheek as he leaned down to press his forehead against the other man’s. “sokka please- _please_ , i’m sorry. i’m sorry i was late like i always am with everything. i’m sorry i didn’t push hard enough, i’m sorry i wasn’t here for you _i_ -” his whispers collapsed with a sob.

zuko pulled his lover into a hug, forcing him to sit on his lap as he cradled his head on his shoulder and sobbed into his neck.

he cried hot tears that evaporated once coming into contact with sokka’s exposed back- a product of being exposed to the cold air for hours- a product of not having an active immune system to fight off the lowering temperature. he laid there, carrying the empty shell of the man he loved the most for who knows _how_ long before he felt a steady hand on his back.

he flinched, pulling ‘sokka’ closer to himself as he turned- only to see katara and toph.

their faces were tinted with pink, with blotches here and there in their faces, signs of having laid without moving for hours. their eyes were slightly swollen- from tears or from sleep zuko didn’t know ( he did ), their hair was also extremely messy and stuck up in random places but zuko thought they were beautiful. without a word, he picked up sokka’s whole body and carried him bridal style in his lap as toph sat down to his right and katara sat to his left. they placed their arms around zuko, comforting each other in an otherwise empty world. zuko hugged sokka’s body tighter as he let himself break in his family’s comfort.

“ _i love you._ ” he mumbled into sokka’s hair, pressing a shaky kiss right after before hiding his face in toph’s shoulder.

they had each other- they still had each other just as sokka had _aang_ and _suki_ and so many others. they would survive and be okay. there’d come a time where zuko would say i love you and hear it echoed back to him, where katara’s eyes would shine with tears of happiness, where toph would picture the colors sokka had spent so long making sure she knew on her own.

they’d be ok, in a point too far into the future for what sokka would’ve preferred, but as he hugged aang and looked down on their family, he knew they’d be ok.

**Author's Note:**

> umm so maybe follow me on twt if yall liked this? it's @/wlwjackie


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